The Clearwater River Plant

In March 1929, Karl Clark wrote that he hoped to recondition the Scientific and Industrial Research Council of Alberta separation plant located at Dunvegan railway yards in north Edmonton so that it would be ready for a full season’s run in 1930. He noted the possibility that it might be moved to a location in the north, at the oil sands deposits. All things considered, he believed that it would be most advantageous to leave the plant where it was.

As it happened, events far away in Ottawa determined that the plant would be moved. Sidney Ells had requested funding to bring in J. M. McClave of Denver, Colorado, to build an oil sands separation plant near Fort McMurray. When this became widely known, a flurry of discussion ensued, involving the Mines Branch, the National Research Council and the Scientific and Industrial Research Council of Alberta. As a direct result, a Memorandum of Agreement between the Mines Branch and SIRCA “…with respect to co-operation between their respective organizations for the purpose of developing commercial methods for utilizing the bituminous sands of Alberta” was signed on

May 13, 1929. Charles Camsell, Deputy Minister of the federal Department of Mines and Resources; R. C. Wallace, member of SIRCA and president of the University of Alberta; and H. M. Tory, president of the NRC and former president of the University of Alberta; signatories.

Plans were quickly put in place to move the SIRCA plant. By August 20, 1929, it was taken apart, loaded on a flat car and heading off up north. According to the 1929 SIRCA Annual Report,

A site for the re-erection of the separation plant had been decided upon beside the Mines Branch bituminous sand quarry on the Federal bituminous sand reserve on the north bank of the Clearwater river about half a mile below Waterways.

Sidney Ells, in charge of the quarrying operation for the plant, had already been at work. Overburden stripped from the quarry was piled behind cribbing to create a landing stage. When Clark visited the site on September 16, work was well under way, and by October 30 the plant was ready for a trial run. After running for three days, it was shut down for the winter.

The spring of 1930 saw new equipment installed at the Clearwater plant. By July, it was up and running. A variety of difficulties were encountered over the summer, providing many opportunities to modify and improve the plant. Max Ball and J.M. McClave of Canadian Northern Oil-Sand Products Ltd. visited in late August. Clark indicated to them that his project would conclude at the end of the 1930 season, and Ball expressed interest in purchasing the plant. Arrangements were made accordingly, and Ball hired men to cut wood to run the plant in 1931.

By March 1931, the effects of the Great Depression were in evidence. SIRCA’s budget was cut back, and Ball was unable to raise sufficient capital for his oil

sands project to move ahead. After only one full season of operation, the Clearwater River plant was shut down permanently. Clark’s report for 1930 noted the project had “…psychological as well as technical value and has probably done as much to direct public interest to Alberta’s bituminous sand resources as all the previous studies at Edmonton.” This did not change the fact that he was left without a facility for further testing of his process, either in the north or in Edmonton.

Significantly, both Robert Fitzsimmons and Max Ball, who visited the Clearwater River plant in 1930 and observed it in operation, went on to build oil sands separation plants themselves. They were clearly influenced by what they saw.